covers
You’ll be pleased to know I’m feeling a lot better since my last post. Today, I’d like to talk about cover versions. Two things got me on to this train of thought. The first was listening to Thea Gilmore’s excellent Loft Music earlier and marveling at the way she’s taken songs like Ever Fallen in Love with Someone, Bad Moon Rising and Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime, changed them completely and produced something if not better, then certainly as brilliant, and in some cases bringing out new things from the songs you never would have noticed in the originals.
The second thing is that I’ve finally got my hands on a copy of Fire and Skill, the Jam tribute album I remember getting at The Courier. I would have gladly paid the money for the Beastie Boys amazing version of Start!, but there’s a few other gems on there as well. Garabge’s version of The Butterfly Collector is just creepy. No other word for it. Noel Gallagher’s version of To Be Someone manages to be both light and poiniant at the same time while Reef’s version of That’s Entertainment is (unintentionally) hilarious for the lines ‘.. and a kick in the balls, I said that’s Enterainment’, in the thickest West Country accent.
Sure there’s some dross on Fire and Skill, but by the standards of most cover albums they’re both fantastic. Shame more cover albums can be that good.
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